Streptococcus pneumoniae

Genome Diversity Project

A serotype 4 strain of Streptococcus pneumoniae has been sequenced at
The Institute for Genomic Research and the sequence
data from the genome of S. pneumoniae has expedited the discovery of new genes
and the process for uncovering the function and biological importance of known genes.

The importance of intra-species strain-to-strain diversity is a developing area of
genomics and bacterial population biology. The genome of individual strains within
the same species may vary appreciably in size and gene content and some of this
variation may correspond to important pathogenic differences between individual
strains. The pneumococcal genome diversity project developed in response
to the public availability of one complete pneumococcal genome at the start
of the project. The goal of this project is to provide a sequence data set
that addresses intra-species genomic diversity.

Fourteen strains have been chosen to try to span
the breadth of diversity within this species. Up to 20 different 10kbp regions
will be sequenced from each of the 14 strains. These data will provide an important
resource for hypotheses addressing intra-species genetic diversity.
All data is made available within days of its availability to all of the
pneumococcal community at this web site.